Weight
by Aiko Isari
Summary: [D-Cyber] Even now, he waits for his friend and mourns his lack of power. AE
1. 1

If only he was stronger. Just a little bit would be fine.

If only he had a longer reach.

Hikaru would be here if he did or had any of those things.

* * *

His mother asks him what happened to his glasses. He lies and tells her that they were knocked into the river. She wisely doesn't ask. Masaken's not bullied very often, but when he is, it stings. He never wants to talk about it. They tend to get their payback.

Masaken could care less about payback right now. MetalFantomon's dead. He just wants Hikaru back.

At least long enough for Kiyoshi to thank him. He deserves that at the very least.

He returns to where the portal had been. He runs past it every day. He runs daily and always eats a carrot. Nothing changes. He stops playing with the Digimon toy.

Nothing changes.

Nothing will ever change.

* * *

 _ **A/N:** _ Please take the time to read and review! It's greatly appreciated.

Challenges: Mangaverse Boot Camp prompt - quixotic, Digimon Manga/Game non flash bingo: 337 - character: Masaken, Diversity Writing (Digimon Anime/Manga) D78. Write a pastiche.


	2. 2

2.

In the beginning, Masaken had known what kind of person he himself was.

That person is… not very significant.

He is a side character, in the end. He gets good grades. He likes to swim and play Digimon and he's got some cool friends. That's about it.

Hikaru had been kind of the same, in retrospect. Sure, he stood out with his brash attitude and refusal to sit still, but those boys are a dime a dozen, thinking they can be heroes. Soon he would have grown out of that. One day. Or maybe become a safer type of hero.

They would never know now.

Because of him.


	3. 3

3.

His Pendulum has an egg in it.

Masaken's not sure if he really wants to hatch it or not.

Kiyoshi has hatched her new Digimon from her latest toy. The baby bounces on screen. "I just wanted to think of him," she says and smiles like everything's okay, like she wasn't a former dark battery nor had bawled her eyes out almost weeks before. She looks a little pleased with herself, and that's not necessarily a bad thing, merely weird.

It makes him squirm a bit in his shoes, as if he should be faster.

Teru, thankfully, is eyeing his own Pendulum with the same sorrowful look. His partner is still alive, but with the aging rate of young Digimon, he's not expecting much. Will it really be a fresh start with all of that said? For any of them?

Without him looking, the egg hatches anyway.

Great.

It's not the same.


	4. 4

4.

It's not as fun.

The game, he means.

Hikaru was one of those people who made button mashing with a pixel screen fun.

It's getting easier to think about him.

It's getting easier, but Masaken still doesn't enjoy it.

So he tries to think about him less.

He's more worried about what's going to happen when the internal battery of the pendulum toy dies. He's more worried on his Digimon not knowing him or not hearing him anymore.

He's worried about MetalFantomon coming back.

Were the others worrying about these things too?

Would Hikaru?

Was he alive to worry about these things?


	5. 5

5.

It beeps.

It doesn't beep as much as Ryudamon did but it's a chatterbox all the same and he kind of wants to know why. It won't become Ryudamon again, he's relatively certain of that. But it's even more insistent on attention.

"What do you want?" Masaken finally asks it, half exasperated and the other half strangely happy. Human speech is not Digimon speech but he's positive that he's being spoken to. And loudly. And often.

It's almost like a person's talking and it's really, really weird.

He can't say he minds until he gets into trouble.

Then it beeps in a way that sounds like 'don't worry about it'.

Didn't Hikaru use to think that way?

He freezes and laughs.

 _Wow,_ Masaken thinks. _I'm starting to forget._

It's been half a year now.


	6. 6

6.

The electronics are acting strangely wherever he goes. His home is immune but the rest are not and he ends up leaving temporarily short-circuiting televisions every street he goes down. His Digimon sounds really annoyed every time. Like it's just a great bother.

(He still can't tell what the little guy is.)

"You really like things to go your way, huh?" he tells it. It beeps as if to confirm a 'no duh, genius." Cheeky little thing.

"Maybe I should call you Hikaru," He says this almost to himself as he heads home, watching the sparks fly above the stoplight.

The Digimon doesn't answer.

"What do you think? Hikaru?" he asked.

No answer. Masaken picks up the toy and looks at it in thought. "Hikaru?"

Tiny pixelated hands waved at him on screen.

For a moment, he has a thought. Then, it passes. He must be seeing things.

Masaken smiles. "Hikaru it is."


	7. 7

7.

He's graduating elementary school.

His V-Pet is still running.

Teru holds it up to the sky. "It's possessed," he declares, ten and all knowing. "You gonna take it to middle school?"

Masaken doesn't ask 'why shouldn't I?' Teru still has one of his own, but it's shiny and new, (They're so close to color, he tells him in a near holler across the school grounds). It's shiny and new and he has a strong digimon this time. He might win a fight, but they both doubt it.

Not that Masaken's been fighting. There's been no time, no matter how much Hikari has nagged and nagged. He's bored.

It can't be helped. No one will play him.

"Hikaru's parents asked about him the other day," Teru finally says to break their nice silence. "They went to Kiyoshi too. They made her cry." Masaken winces,

Because everyone thinks Hikaru's just missing.

Even him, now.

Then, his toy burns white hot in his hands, and he has to drop it to the ground.

There's a crackling sound, like static. Then a high, almost screecy voice makes itself heard from the speaker.

"I'm not dead!" it squeaks. Then it goes silent once more.


	8. 8

8.

The three words hang like a banner, hearts in throats and full of rage. Kiyoshi doesn't believe them at first, but how could she? How could anyone?

Masaken leaves it on his desk, no matter how much it beeps aafter feeding. He doesn't want his questions answered, he doesn't want his hopes dashed again.

How long has it been for him, if that is him? What's he been doing aside from sit in Masaken's toy, beeping for years?

Why hadn't they discovered him sooner?

Nothing but questions without answers. Nothing but children with left behind shoes they can't fill and dreams that can't be answered.

Because that's totally fair.

Masaken puts his head in his hands and weeps in silence in his darkened bedroom.

Hikaru beeps like a slow heart. It's not comforting now.


	9. 9

9.

What do they do?

Seriously?

How do they get to him?

He's supposed to be the smart one, and yet he has no idea what to do. But then Hikaru had not been the sharpest crayon in the box and had simply made and executed decisions, for good or ill. He had wanted that ability. But it would go against everything he is.

Hikaru continues to beep. One day he gets so loud, Masaken can't even go into class. He's kicked out and only not suspended because he looks so horrified and downtrodden himself at this failure of competency. He takes to leaving it in his shoe locker, where no one can care unless they want to dig it out of one of his socks.

Then, after school one day, the toy literally flies away.


	10. 10

10.

Chase it down. Chase it to the end.

Never mind that toys shouldn't fly to begin with. Then again, they shouldn't talk but this one did.

Masaken calls them. Because an adventure awaits and this time, they're going together. They're coming back together.. No matter what.

He hears something far from his ears. He hears them, his Ryudamon, the Knights-

Hikaru.

Masaken reaches out his hand. For a second he forgets. Then two others grab his and he, they, are pulled down, down-

Someone is laughing.

Deathmon is laughing.

Masaken laughs back. What is there to be afraid of? His Pendulum throbs with power.

Then, that voice. The voice he had been wishing to hear, the friend he'd wished to see, shot from his pendulum, full of smiles.

"Aw, look at this cocky guy!"

Hikaru, lines, boxes all gone, grins at the three of them. "Hey guys!" He punches the air. "Look at what I can do!"


	11. 11

11.

Masaken's first instinct is to cry. His next instinct is to punch Hikari in the face.

Guess which one he does first.

Hikaru rubs his cheek. "I deserved that."

"I should give you another one to match," Masaken manages to say, throat closing tight. "You absolute lying bastard."

But he's smiling.

Hikaru beams. "You betcha." He turns around. "Okay, time to go home!" He lifts a hand up and waves it. "It's a bit of a long story but, I'm here now, okay?"

"Prove it by getting us out of here."

Hikaru, being Hikaru, does it with glee. And ease. It's almost unfair.

Scratch that, it's very unfair.


	12. 12

12.

They land on the ground with nothing to cushion them but grass. For a few minutes their happy ending is ruined by sore butts and green stains on their back.

Which of course makes them all giggle like idiots. They just can't help themselves.

"I'm home," he says. Hikaru says it and it's real. It's a real thing and it means they have to go home and talk to their parents and everything has to change. And they're not ready, no one is actually ready. How awful.

How wonderful.

Masaken's shoulders feel so light..


End file.
